Jade Raymond Opens New Studio, Working on Visceral’s Star Wars Game

This past October, Ubisoft Toronto Managing Director Jade Raymond left the company. Now, she's opening her own studio under EA and working on Star Wars.

EA and Jade Raymond have announced the founding of Motive Studios. Raymond will be heading the new Montreal-based studio. She is primary known for her work at Ubisoft Toronto and producing the first Assassin's Creed title, which lead to a number of spin-offs/sequels and is arguably one of the most successful new video game IPs of the past decade. Raymond promises that the creative experience will be her studio's main drive in development and that they'll work on some new IPs after their first game.

Here's what Raymond had to say about her new studio:

I love making games. I got my first job in the industry 20 years ago and am just as excited by the potential of games as I was on my very first day. There is no recipe for what a game should be and the only limit is the team's imagination. The endless possibilities, the talented people I get to work with and the passion that gamers add to make each game their own is what motivates me. Everyone in this industry has a motive, an idea they want to bring to life, a new idea they'd like to see in a game. It’s what’s so great about this industry. And it’s what I want to get back to.

So what is Motive's first project? They're going to be working with Visceral Games and Amy Hennig to develop the next major Star Wars game that is likely coming out after Battlefront.

Motive will be a creative-driven team, incubating entirely new IP and taking on some amazing projects. The first one is going to be really exciting – we’re going to work on Amy Hennig’s Star Wars game! In addition to building the new Motive Studio in Montreal, I will also oversee the Visceral studio in California. I'm a huge fan of the games that have come out of Visceral and I feel honoured to be working with such a talented team led by studio GM Scott Probst. I've also known Amy for years and have admired her work on the Uncharted games! I’m thrilled that the first big project that we will work on in Montreal will have Amy as Creative Director. An opportunity to work with her and the Visceral team, and to play in the Star Wars universe, is once-in-a-lifetime stuff.

We can't wait to see what this new Star Wars game is going to be like.